Post navigation

20140304 – To Simplify…

As I review the list of blogs I read these days I find more and more of them have to do with full time RV living and thus with simplifying lives and lifestyles. Hmm…perhaps mentally I’m more retired than my work life would suggest!

Anyway, from one who chooses to live in a Volkswagen Vanagon full time, to those who live in a 17 foot travel trailer towed by a pickup truck, to those who live in a forty foot class A diesel pusher towing a car, to the few who have a sticks and bricks house and travel a lot for extended periods, the common theme seems to be living simple and uncluttered lives. Those that are successful accomplish exactly what they want, go where and see what they want, and even manage to earn a living in some cases, or live out their retirement dreams in others.

It prompts me to think about what would happen to a business if you applied the same effort to simplify things. First I think you would need to apply the idea of simplifying a business slightly differently than you would the idea of simplifying your lifestyle. Why? Well, some businesses are, by their very nature or purpose, extremely complex. Others could be relatively uncomplicated to begin with.

In reality though there are a lot of similarities between simplifying your life and simplifying your business. Both would involve a laser sharp focus on what it is you’re trying to accomplish. Both would involve getting rid of clutter. Both would involve streamlining processes and doing only the right things right. And for home-based businesses and sole proprietorships the line between home life and business life becomes pretty indistinct.

So simplifying a business might be thought of in the context of refining and zeroing in on the purpose of the business, streamlining the business activities to focus only on fulfilling that purpose, and de-cluttering the business of unnecessary, inefficient and duplicative processes. The desired result of all of this simplifying activity would be a high performance business that is fulfilling its declared purpose.

Where would one start the process of simplifying a business for better performance? Well, rather than risk boring all of my Tuesdays with Terry readers I think that question and this topic in general would better be explored at length on my business blog Better Business Basics. We’ll pick up the story over there.